Sunday, March 3, 2019

This week's OFC in San Diego, which is expected to draw over 15,000 attendees, will feature several live multivendor interoperability and technology demonstrations including FlexE (Flex Ethernet), 400ZR, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), 25GbE, 50GbE, 100GbE, 400GbE; Open Source Open ROADM SDN Controller; pluggable CFP2-ACO and CFP2-DCO modules; and Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G.

“The exhibit floor at OFC is the ideal venue for vendors and open source community representatives to demonstrate the interoperability of their technologies and how they can be implemented into network and data center operators’ infrastructure,” said Jörg-Peter Elbers, ADVA Optical Networking SE, Germany, and OFC General Co-Chair. “The technologies being demonstrated by these groups represent the latest advancements and their interoperability is vital to driving our industry forward.”

Coherent Transceiver Demo, Booth #6421

This demonstration will show live interoperability of pluggable CFP2-ACO and CFP2-DCO modules from multiple vendors (Acacia, Fujitsu Optical Components and Lumentum) operating at 100Gbps. The modules will be plugged into a white box switch from Edgecore, and transmit and receive HD-FEC coded 100Gbps DP-QPSK optical signals traversing optical fiber over distances covering data center interconnects. This demonstration is being coordinated by NTT Network Innovation Laboratories.

Ethernet Alliance Ethernet Demo, Booth #4749

The Ethernet Alliance will display an interoperable multivendor next-gen technology demo that will encompass 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), 25GbE, 50GbE, 100GbE and 400GbE technologies and solutions from 18 companies, ranging from interconnect providers, to switches and routers, to test and measurement equipment. The Ethernet Alliance will also showcase a live 400GbE infrastructure connecting multiple booths on the show floor. The Ethernet Alliance is also celebrating the success of those companies winning the Ethernet Alliance Holy Cup Challenge, for their successful first public demonstration of transmitting 100GbE per lambda. Join the celebration at a Wednesday afternoon social in their booth.

400ZR DemoOIF’s 400ZR project is critical in facilitating the reduction of cost and complexity for high bandwidth data center interconnects and promoting interoperability among optical module manufacturers. Currently in progress, the project will result in an implementation agreement for 400G ZR and short-reach DWDM multi-vendor interoperability. The 400ZR demo consists of real-time Error Vector Magnitude measurements demonstrating the maturity of the methodology used for transmitter specifications. In addition, a hardware-based 400ZR installation will show how participants communicate a typical application case.

CEI-112G Demo
OIF is taking a lead role in moving the industry to the next generation with its development of electrical interface specifications for 112 Gbps per differential pair. Multiple live demonstrations featuring interoperability clearly prove the key role OIF provides. The CEI-112G demonstrations in the OIF booth will feature multi-party silicon supplier interoperability over mated compliance board channels and direct attach copper cable channels, all demonstrating the technical viability of 112 Gbps operation, along with multiple industry form factors including OSFP and QSFP-DD.

FlexE Demo
OIF continues to lead in FlexE aggregation architectures through its newest FlexE 2.1 project for FlexE over 50GbE PHY applications, an extension to its FlexE 2.0 Implementation Agreement (IA). The FlexE 2.0 demo will show off the bonding, subrating, and channelization features that allows FlexE-enabled hardware to support non-standard Ethernet rates over standard Ethernet optics. Realistic multi-vendor deployment scenarios, client rate reconfiguration, and in-band messaging features will be demonstrated on a network built from a variety of Ethernet optics and interconnecting the OIF and Ethernet Alliance booths.

OIF is celebrating 20 years of advancing new technologies and interoperability work effecting progressive change in the industry.

Open ROADM MSA SDN Demos, Booth #6139

This demo will use an open optical layer (Open ROADM MSA compliant) to turn up a wavelength with an Open Source Open ROADM SDN Controller, transfer a large number of Virtual Machines from one data center to another data center over this wavelength using a master orchestrator and turn down the optical connection afterwards. The demo is a collaboration of the University of Texas, Dallas, with Ciena, Fujitsu, Orange and AT&T. It will also demonstrate other Open ROADM MSA compliant hardware from ECI, Infinera and Juniper.

At the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) in San Diego, the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) will showcase the first-ever on-board optical ecosystem of its kind as its demonstration brings together a wide range of innovative developments including optical switch, adapter, modules, and compliance board products for industry leading suppliers.

“The Consortium for On-Board Optics released its industry breakthrough on-board optical module specification at OFC 2018. The panel members will share their experiences and developments during the past year since the specification release,” said Brad Booth, President, COBO. “COBO continues to bring a wide variety of industry perspectives and expertise to the development of on-board optics, and we look forward to sharing that knowledge through the panel and with our presence at OFC.”

“MACOM’s InnovationZone represents the best of today’s innovative solutions for Cloud Data Center and 5G connectivity,” said Preet Virk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks, MACOM. “Featuring MACOM’s leading components and technology in industry solutions, the InnovationZone showcases the ongoing progress component suppliers and module vendors are making towards enabling the next-generation of optical connectivity, demonstrated in the newly popular PlugFest event style.”

The module is designed to facilitate an easy upgrade path from 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps by reusing existing MPO fiber cable infrastructure used in 40G SR4 QSFP+ and 100G SR4 QSFP28 deployment with 8-fibers ribbon cable. The 400G BiDi modules support link distances up to 70m OM3 and 100m OM4.

FIT cited the following advantages for the 400G BiDi transceiver compared to alternative solutions, including:

Extended use of installed MPO MMF cabling to support the transition to 400 GbE: An upgrade path for millions of 100G QSFP28 SR4 MMF transceivers deployed in the field to FIT's new 400G BiDi QSFP28 transceiver. 400G BiDi enables customers to reduce their Capex and Opex costs when they transition to 400G by utilizing existing MMF cable infrastructure.

Endorsed by Major OEM's: 40G BiDi QSFP+ and 100G BiDi QSPF28 transceivers have already been widely adopted in the industry.

4x100 Gbps breakout capability: 400G BiDi can be operated in either an aggregate point to point mode or a breakout mode. In the 4x100 Gbps breakout mode, the 400G BiDi will interoperate with 100G BiDi solutions allowing backward compatibility to 100 Gbps network applications

The 400G BiDi transceiver solution is based on Broadcom's industry leading optical ICs and components including 400G 8:8 PAM-4 PHY and an array of 4x50G VCSEL and PIN photodetector components plus complementary 4x50G transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and laser driver ICs. The solution delivers unprecedented performance and power efficiency enabling high volume deployment of 400 GbE MMF links for datacenter and cloud networks.

"The 2 million 40G and 100G BiDi transceivers we have shipped to date demonstrate the success and market acceptance of these optical solutions enabling customers to realize further cost savings by reusing their existing OM3 and OM4 MMF cable infrastructures. The new 400G BiDi transceiver module leverages proven FIT BiDi technology and builds upon that success story by offering a higher speed product for link distances below 100 meters for hyperscale data centers, enterprise, and fabric interconnects of 5G wireless infrastructures," said Adam Carter, Chief Commercial Officer in FIT's Fiber Optics Communications Business.

Customer adoption of 100 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 25GbE data center switches increased significantly in 2018, with shipments of each technology more than doubling year-over-year, according to the latest report from Crehan Research Inc.

This increase drove the overall data center Ethernet switch market to its strongest shipment growth since 2015 as well as to record revenue results. Furthermore, as shown in the accompanying figure, annual 100GbE data center switch port shipments surpassed those of 40GbE, a transition that has occurred approximately just three years after initial high-density 100GbE switch silicon-based systems started production shipments.

“10GbE and 40GbE data center switch shipments each declined in 2018, while 25GbE and 100GbE continued to grow significantly, signaling that we are now solidly in the 100/25GbE era,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “Because of its compelling
value propositions, this modern data center architecture is now being widely deployed across public, private, and hybrid cloud data centers to handle a broad and diverse set of application workloads.”

Overall market average selling prices were (once again) very stable in 2018. In fact, over the past four years, overall data center Ethernet switch market average selling prices have fallen by less than five percent in total.

Cisco accounted for about half of total branded data center Ethernet switch revenues in 2018, driven by very strong customer adoption of its Nexus 9000 series 100GbE and 25GbE data center

switching products.

Arista gained the most data center Ethernet switch revenue and shipment share in 2018, picking up three share points in both of those areas.

Despite a significant slowdown in 4Q18, both Huawei and H3C also had annual data center Ethernet switch share gains in 2018.

Although total 10GbE data center switch shipments declined in 2018, 10GBASE-T shipments continued to grow, even with weakness in this segment in the latter half of the year.

“The wide deployment of 100GbE switching, with an annualized port shipment run-rate now approaching the tens of millions, sets a very solid foundation for the upcoming 400GbE ramp likely starting in the second half of this year," Crehan said.

The worldwide use of handheld Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) and associated devices reached $407.33 million in 2018, up from $397.8 million in 2017, according to a new study published by ElectroniCast Consultants, a leading market and technology research consultancy addressing the fiber optics communications industry. An Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) is a fiber optic test instrument used as a troubleshooting device to find faults in the optical fiber link.

The Cable TV sector is forecast to increase in volume (quantity/number of units) at over 5% annually during the forecast period (2018-2028).

The consumption value of OTDRs in the Private Networks is forecast for very impressive “double-digit” annual growth over most of the next 10-years, due to the increase in optical fiber deployment in LANs (local area networks), campus (LAN extension inter-building, LAN-to-LAN and redundant lines), and (very large) Data Centers (DCs), driven by critical high-speed data applications.

Verizon has acquired ProtectWise, a Colorado-based company which provides cloud-delivered Network Detection and Response. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Integrating ProtectWise's capabilities with Verizon's leading global network services further enhances our ability to detect and respond to security threats," said Alex Schlager, executive director, product management and development, Verizon. "In addition, as we rapidly expand our 5G footprint, increasing our capacity and capabilities in network detection and response will secure our customers as they adapt and expand with the next generation of connectivity."

“ProtectWise has dedicated the last five years to building a next-generation Network Detection and Response platform that’s been recognized as one of the leading technologies in the cybersecurity industry,” said Scott Chasin, ProtectWise CEO and Co-Founder. “Our technology and the outstanding team behind it will be great assets to Verizon as the company expands its enterprise security offerings. We look forward to becoming a part of Verizon to deliver immediate value to our customers, partners and team based on the company’s strong security market presence and global reach.”